"You're looking at me like you're surprised to see me," my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Rose, said the next evening when she stepped into the living room.
She could see me through the window and knew it was okay to let herself in, but I was up to my elbows cleaning the house, and her arrival took me off guard. It registered, after a few seconds, that she was at my house because she thought she was watching Shelby for me as she always did on alternating Thursdays when I had band practice.
Only I didn't have band practice that evening.
I had been moping the floors in the kitchen, and I noticed the baseboards needed attention, which led to the windowsills. I had been cleaning for the last hour. My hair was in a ponytail, and I had on long yellow gloves with a dishtowel in one hand and a squirt bottle in the other.
"Did you think you were babysitting?" I asked.
Rose had crossed the living room to meet me in the kitchen. "Yeah," she said. "Where's the peanut?"
"She's playing in her room. We don't have band practice tonight. Remember? I reminded you when I saw at the shop the other day."
"Oh, I totally forgot you said that! I had about ten things going on when we talked."
"I'm sorry," I said. "I should have called and reminded you. We have that gig this weekend, so we canceled practice."
"It's fine," she said. She opened the lid on the hamburger macaroni and smelled the steam that wafted from the pot.
"Can you please stir that?" I asked, finishing the window.
Rose picked up a nearby spoon and stirred the pot. "Can I have some of this?" she asked.
"Of course," I said. "Get a plate."
Rose lifted the lid to the other pot—the one that contained broccoli. "Wow, gourmet!" she said, noticing my broccoli was fresh and not frozen. This made me laugh.
Rose scooped a small helping of the macaroni onto her plate along with two spears of broccoli. "Thank you," she said, leaning against the counter as she took a bite. It was steaming hot, so she did that thing where you breathe in as you chew to cool it off. "Are you having somebody over for dinner?" she asked after a bite.
"A tenant, actually," I said, glancing at the clock as I finished the window. "He'll be here in ten minutes."
"Who, Randy?" she asked.
I stashed the cleaner and gloves under the sink and turned to face Rose, shaking my head. "A new guy. His name's Gray. He's gonna be renting the upstairs apartment."
She looked around. "And you're having him over for dinner?"
"He's signing the lease and bringing some rent money over here. I think he's in town alone. He basically invited himself."
Rose began eating quickly in an effort to get out of my way. "Is he fine?" she asked in between bites.
"No," I said, too quickly and too nervously. "Why would you even ask that? It's not like that. He's just… he's not even… he's barely even gonna be in Memphis. He may not even show up tonight. He doesn't even live here. It was all really weird how it went down last night. I don’t even know how to get in touch with him. I just assume he's coming at six. He might not."
I glanced at Rose and realized by the way she was looking at me that I was probably saying way too much and talking way too quickly. The truth was, I was really nervous about Gray coming over. It'd been a long time since I had been nervous about a guy, and I wasn't very good at hiding it. I took Rose's fork out of her hand and helped myself to a bite of her macaroni. I hadn't tasted it yet and I needed something to do with my hands.
"Is it too salty?" I asked after I took a bite.
"No," she said. "And you look beautiful."
I glanced at my own appearance. I hadn't changed since work, so I still had on my teaching clothes. I wore one of my favorite outfits to work (light gray slacks with a burgundy blouse), and I just left it on afterward. I usually changed to comfy clothes once I got home, but today I left on my work attire. My shoulder length hair was pulled into a high ponytail.
"Thank you," I said, touching my hair to make sure everything was still in place after my cleaning spree.
"You look great," she assured me. "And you obviously have a thing for this guy."
I shook my head as I stirred the pot and then turned off the burner. "I don't," I said. "He is super hot, but I don't—"
"Awwww, I knew you liked him, I could tell!" Rose said.
"I don't like him. I don't even know him. I just wanted to warn you that he was handsome in case he came pulling up. I didn't want you to give me a hard time about it. He's fine. There I said it. He's a soldier though, and I don't date soldiers."
"Oh, so you date a bunch of other guys who aren't soldiers?" Rose asked, teasing me about my non-existent dating life.
I stuck my tongue out at her, and she giggled as she rinsed her plate and set it in the dishwasher.
"No, I'm just saying, soldiers are especially off the list."
I was lying to her and to myself. I had no such rule against soldiers. I was only saying I had one because I was scared that I already had a crush on this guy.
"Did you say he's renting the upstairs apartment from you?" she asked.
"I think so. I think he lives in Chicago, and he's just in Memphis part of the time. Maybe like a vacation home. I'm really not sure."
"Okay," she said, seeing my anxiousness. "I'm gonna say 'bye' to Shelby." Rose paused and regarded me with wide eyes as if something monumental had just dawned on her. "Why don't you let me take her with me so you can have your date?"
"It's not a date. It's not even close to a date. The whole reason I was cooking hamburger macaroni was for Shelby."
"We could take some of that with us. Shelby can eat it over my house. I'll bring her back in a couple of hours. I was planning on having her tonight, anyway."
"I know, but I hate to…" I trailed off, feeling torn about what to do.
"Just let her come with me," Rose said, taking advantage of my hesitation. "I'll bring her back in a little while."
Rose wasn't trying to put me on the spot; she was offering to help as a favor. But I felt nervous and antsy like I honestly didn't know what to choose.
"Hey Shells!" Rose said, shifting to look at Shelby who had just come out of her room. "You wanna come over to my house while your mama takes care of her meeting?"
"Hew what?"
"Her meeting. She's meeting someone who wants to rent the apartment."
"Who Mistew Gway? He's not a meeting. He's coming ovew to eat at ouw house. He might bwing his dog, Woxy."
"He has a dog?" Rose asked, looking at me with an expression that said things were getting more dangerous by the minute.
I shook my head. "He doesn't have a dog. He doesn't even live in Memphis. He said there was a slim chance that he could bring his mom's dog sometime."
"It's a box dog," Shelby said.
"A box dog?" Rose asked, looking a little perplexed.
"A boxer," I said.
"A boxew, yeah," Shelby agreed, nodding.
"But it doesn’t live in Memphis," I reminded her.
Then, there it was. All of us saw it at the same time—the reflected light, shining off of Gray's car as he pulled into the driveway. I glanced at the clock to find that it was three minutes till six.
A wave of nerves came over me, and I was suddenly petrified. I stood there, feeling incapable of moving or even deciding what to do next.
"What do you think?" I asked, looking at Rose.
"Let her come with me," Rose said. She reached down and patted Shelby on the bottom. "Go grab a few toys. I'll make you a bowl of macaroni real quick, and you can eat it at my house."
"I thought I was staying home," Shelby said.
"Maybe after we eat, Uncle Jesse will take you for a ride."
Rose was officially bribing my daughter with a motorcycle ride given by my brother, and I just sat there and let it happen. I waited to see what Shelby would say.
"Yessssss!" Shelby said, taking off toward the hallway.
Before I knew it, there was a knock at the door. I glanced at Rose with a look of mock terror, and she whispered to me that I looked beautiful. By the time I answered the door and let Gray in, Rose and Shelby had come to stand near us. Gray was carrying a white box that looked like it came from a pastry shop, and I took it from him with a thankful smile.
"Gray, this is my dearest friend and soon-to-be sister-in-law, Rose."
"Hi Gray," Rose said shifting the bowl of macaroni so she could shake his hand. She gestured at Shelby who had come to stand right beside her.
"I usually keep Shelby while Jane has band practice. I forgot I wasn't doing it tonight, so I showed up anyway." Rose smiled at Gray and ruffled Shelby's hair. "I had already planned on having my little partner tonight, so I talked them into letting me steal her for a couple of hours."
"What's in thewe?" Shelby asked, knowing as well as I did that it was a pastry box.
"I was wondering the same thing," Rose said with great interest.
We took a minute to open the box and look inside. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, we had packaged up three of the little chocolate truffles to send with Rose and Shelby. Rose and Gray made small talk while we had the whole exchange. Rose gave me a few looks behind his back referring to his appearance or eligibility or both, and the whole time, it was all I could do to keep my cool.
I smiled at Gray and let out a little a sigh once they made their way out the door. "Hello," I said.
He grinned. "Hello."
His teeth were white, and they were just sitting there, flawlessly being framed by the world's most perfect lips. I had to look away, so I crossed to the kitchen gesturing for him to follow me.
"Rose is really nice," he said.
"She's amazing," I said, smiling as I stirred the macaroni. "I guess it's kind of silly that we're eating macaroni now that Shelby's not here with us, but Rose had forgotten she wasn't staying with her tonight."
"What's wrong with macaroni?" he asked. "You got something against macaroni?"
"No. Do you?"
"No way," he said, leaning over a little to try to see into the pot." I moved so that he could take a look, and he stepped closer. I took another small step backward because I was overwhelmed with his proximity.
"That looks so good," he said. "I pretty much can't wait to eat that."
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope, handing it to me. It was thick, and I knew from first feel that it contained cash. I put the lid back on the pot and set the spoon on a spoon rest before crossing to the countertop where I had the lease agreement set out.
"It's pretty straightforward," I said, sliding the piece of paper toward him. I opened the envelope and peered inside expecting, from the thickness of it, to see twenty-dollar-bills. They weren't twenties. They were hundreds, and there were a lot of them.
"I thumbed through them, feeling like I was imagining things. "This is too much."
"No, it's not. It’s for a year, like I said."
Gray looked at the lease agreement while I took a second to actually count the money. "This is twenty-five hundred dollars," I said.
He glanced at me and nodded.
"That's more than a year. Twelve months at two hundred a month is twenty-four hundred."
I handed him back one of the bills, and he pushed it away, causing me to squint at him.
"I think twenty-five is totally reasonable for that place. A whole year plus utilities? I'm the one getting a deal." He picked up the pen and placed his initials in the three small blanks on the left side of the page before signing the bottom. "Is that all?" he asked with a smile as he put down the pen.